So you may be recommending a competitors camera over your own brand?
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Not to speak for Yair, but I don't think he's recommending anything except the brand of his own companies particular digital back.
leaf and Mamiya had a relationship for a long time and up until the HY6 either on MAC's site or Leaf, there were deals for buying a mamiya body and a Leaf back.
In fact I have the impression, (and this is just a guess, no hard facts) that all of the digital back makers, except for Hasselblad, would have been quite content just selling backs for the H-1/2 series, Mamiya with the occasional Contax and V mount.
Really, that pretty much sums up medium format cameras, the H series which going forward is pretty much Hasselblad proprietary, the Hy6 which so far is Leaf and Sinar only and the Mamiya/Phase which is considered an open platform.
I'm sure all the manufacturer's would be almost as happy selling you a back for any brand.
Somewhere down the line, (and this also is just a guess) all the db makers will have to decide to make a single integrated camera/back, or continue to go the route of a lot of backs for a ever decreasing number of medium format cameras.
I recently saw a survey from Hasselblad, asking about the preferences and state of the professional photography industry. One strong point was mention of price in relationship to a declining economy, the other question was about convergence of camera and digital device.
I can understand the economic question, but as far as convergence, I would think that Hasselblad asking that question is kind of like locking the barn door after the horse has left.
Going forward you have to wonder what's next for digital backs? Faster shooting, easier software, lower prices, or maybe even higher more exclusive prices.
Personally, I think the digital back makers strong suit is in their ability to tether on set. They don't seem to make that strong a point on the respective websites ofHasseblad, Sinar, Leaf and Phase as they feature cameras first, backs somewhat secondary and rarely highlight any scenario where the back is hooked to the computer.
This kind of surprises me as tethering is these cameras strongest part of the market I believe they sell to and I think all the db makers breathed a deep sigh of relief when Canon went to usb 2 tethering.
Maybe one or all of them will surpise us with a camera/back that works with a multiple viewer capability like tethering, but not in the traditional camera hard wired to computer sceanrio we have now.
It's interesting that the only real different camera back I've seen is the megavision, the one that is mated to that little computer. I don't know how well it works, don't know actually if it works at all but how cool would that be to have that size of a screen, (if it was a high rez) and embedded in the software were film type settings . . . Paulo Roversi Polaroid, Shelia Metzler Grain, Platon distortion, Dan Winters Blue and Nadiv Kander Green.
JR
